Delhi HC cuts POCSO sentence from 30 to 15 years: enhanced minimum can't apply retrospectively

The Delhi High Court upheld the conviction of a man for kidnapping a minor neighbour and repeatedly raping her over roughly two months in 2014-15, but cut his sentence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 from thirty years to fifteen years' rigorous imprisonment. The girl, then about fifteen, was taken from outside her school in December 2014 and recovered two months later from Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, about two months pregnant; her pregnancy was medically terminated. The trial court convicted the appellant under Sections 363 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, and sentenced him to thirty years' simple imprisonment. Justice Madhu Jain upheld the conviction, finding the victim's consistent testimony, corroborated by her parents and the police party that recovered her, sufficient despite some investigative gaps.

On sentence, the Court held that the 2019 amendment raising Section 6's minimum punishment from ten to twenty years could not be applied retrospectively to an offence committed in 2014-15, since Article 20(1) of the Constitution bars a greater penalty than the law in force at the time of the offence, citing Satauram Mandavi v. State of Chhattisgarh. It also held the trial court's sentence of simple imprisonment did not conform to Section 6, which mandates rigorous imprisonment. Weighing the gravity of the offence against the appellant's age at the time and nearly a decade already spent in custody, the Court modified the sentence to fifteen years' rigorous imprisonment, leaving the IPC sentences and fine unchanged.